Why are we in love with Nene?

we need someone with a unique hair style. we haven’t had that since marquis daniels left.

who do you prefer? gasol, millsap, west, humphries or someone else. can’t just stay put. i understand we need to spend at least 85% of the maximum cap otherwise we get penalized financially. i’d rather spend the money on a good player than giving it to the league.

he’s one of the few who have shown interest in playing for the pacers

toughness+rebounding+more balls than Hibbert – who has none, Nene had one removed from testicular cancer, right? :)

the numbers you posted for nene are numbers our 4 didn’t have last year.

tyler 11.2 ppg 5.2 rpg 0.2bpg
josh 5.2ppg 5.3rpg 0.8bpg
posey 4.9ppg 3rpg 0.1bpg
solo 3.6ppg 2.9rpg 0.6bpg

…but I’d say the reason why may be because the guy everyone wants, you know, the PF who averages 20 and 10 with 3 bpg, and 3 spg, and who Indy got through trade by merely offering Posey and Rush, and who upon coming to Indy graciously decided to sign a 5-year contract worth 20 mil…doesn’t exist!

IF (huge if) we end up with Rondo without losing george, granger, or hibbert… (and we can’t get milsap)

then I am fine with going all in with Nene. It would be overpaying him, but it could be worth it if it gets us back in contention. And a starting line up of Rondo/George/Granger/Nene/Hibbert is a top 4 team in the East.

COMBO ability..

are Nene’s stats eye catching? No. But they are better than most power forwards in the league. The most in demand asset in the NBA today is a skilled big man, there are tons and tons of excellent up and coming point guards but skill big men that are versatile and bring paint presence are far and few in between. Why did dallas win the championship this year as oppose to years before, its because they finally had a respectable paint presence. Why did the Lakers win the year before that? Because their front line was unmatchable with 3 legit skilled bigs.
Look, nobody wants to overpay a guy, but if of overpaying means overpaying by an acceptable amount then you do it because what’s the Chance that the Pacers lure in a big free agent aquisition next year? Not very likely, in fact the Pacers have never, and I mean never brought in any superstar through Free Agent. Of course Nene will still not be qualify as a superstar, but at some point, if you have the financial ability to make an acquisition that will make the team significantly better, you absolutely do it.
Also, think of what happens if we don’t sign Nene and he goes to the Nets, then the Nets suddenly are a player in the East in just a matter of minutes and where what will the Pacers do in response? sign Carl Landry? that’s even worse than overpaying that’s just wasting your salary because on Paper Carl Landry seems like a decent fit, but trust me, there is a sizeable difference over the long run between someone like Nene and Landry.
I completely agree that there is a limit to how much weshould give to Nene, but if it’s close enough to the ball park that Larry and Co. have in mind, they got to pull the trigger, because the consequences of not signing might be greater. The Pacers are already a playoff team this year due to their completness in depth, but adding a player of Nene stature would push the Pacers to a 3rd or 4th or 5th seed, though that may not sound as exicting, but the at least there is a fighting chance for an upset if a couple of shots fall our way.

Here’s an excellent NYT article on why we should love for Nene to become a Pacer…

Why Nene Should Be in Demand

Nene was a big part of the nuggets run last year in the playoffs, after everyone thought they’d get swept due to the absence of melo. Lets not forget that if we added nene, we could possibly have the biggest starting back-court in the league. Nene played at center most of the time for the nuggets, and sliding him over to the 4 would give him an advantage over a lot of smaller PF’s in the league. Who knows, maybe if he plays against smaller players, he could be a little more successful on the offensive end as he would probably muscle them around.